Red Panda Tensor

[cantremember]

Thanks for the review! I'm also a little disappointed to read #7 as well but I wonder that can be fixed with a firmware update.

[Timv]

I get mine next week so am looking forward to trying this out!

[Seance]

(Edited for clarity)

Got mine yesterday. Some initial thoughts.

Dude.... thanks for the write-up. Very thorough and interesting. Thoughts...provoked.

[shikawkee]

(Edited for clarity)

Got mine yesterday. Some initial thoughts:

1. Minor, but this enclosure size is great. Narrower than the particle, but wide enough for the dual switches.

2. The random knob is very effective and pretty versatile. It seems to look at what knobs you have moved from their neutral position, and then use that to decide what to randomize; and the degree of randomization seems to correlate to how far off neutral the knobs are moved. So, e.g., if you have everything but pitch at neutral and grab a sample, randomize will primarily affect pitch; and the farther off neutral the pitch knob is set, the wider the range of randomization it seems to apply. You can use this to duplicate things like the EHX random tone generator by taking a short sample of a note, then turn the pitch knob way off center, then max randomize, and you will get one note bouncing around across several octaves, with the rate of change tied to how far up the randomize knob is set.

Some things like direction seem to always be incorporated into the randomize feature, though I wasn't entirely clear on this.

And one interesting aspect of the random knob overlaps with another point below. There is a lot of overlap between the speed, time, and pitch knobs, which means you can get similar sounds using different knob combinations, and that in turn impacts how the random knob reacts.

3. The time-stretching is pretty good. In truth that was the main point of interest for me, and it didn't disappoint. Interestingly, the EHX 16SDD seems to also max out at about 1:4 stretching. But the character of the stretch is very different from the 16SDD. The 16SDD repeats longer fragments of sound to achieve the stretch, which gives it a bit of a "stutter" kind of quality in terms of timing, but the actual quality/character of the looped sound stays true to the sample. The Tensor uses smaller fragments, so it avoids the stutter effect but takes on a flange-ish kind of aliasing, particularly at the extremes. Neither is better or worse IMO, but different.

4. One area of disappointment was how it handled overdubbing when time-stretching. The manual warns that overdubbing in stretch mode will cause distortion and other artifacts. They weren't kidding. If you overdub in 1:4 stretch, it comes out like a ring modulated or bit-crushed signal, with the pitch often seeming to be ambiguous or out of place. That's true even if you don't re-adjust the stretch after overdubbing. So, e.g., you record a loop, stretch to 1:4, then overdub something and let it play back. What you just overdubbed will sound very distorted and ring-modulated. If you then put the time back to 1:1, the original layer will go back to sounding normal, but the overdub gets even more distorted. That can yield some interesting results. But it's worth noting that the 16SDD doesn't do that - if you overdub in 1:4 stretch, the overdub sounds just like you played it. (Which IMO reaffirms how far ahead of its time that pedal was.)

5. I think this will put a lot of pressure on the Revolver. The Revolver has the fade feature, which is unique. And it can get some insanely short samples. But the Tensor handles very short samples well - just set the hold switch to momentary and then barely tap the hold switch. The revolver also has some great randomized functions, and you have greater control over the degree/impact of randomization with the Revolver. But in a general sense there is a lot of overlap there as well. So while the Revolver still has some unique features, there is definitely a very large amount of overlap, and the Tensor is a lot cheaper and more readily available (and it also has other functions that the Revolver doesn't do at all - particularly overdubbing & time stretching).

6. The 'Next' mode is neat but a little different than I expected. I thought it was like Mode 2 on the CT5 - i.e., record a loop, and it keeps playing until you hit record again, at which point the old loop keeps playing until you close the new loop, and then the new loop starts. But actually, Next mode is more like the "Auto" mode on the Revolver and some of the Judder settings. It's like a constantly revolving door of recording and playing back samples - so you just engage the pedal, and then it will listen for 2.4 seconds, and when it starts playing back that sample it will be automatically listening in the background for the next 2.4 seconds, at the end of which it starts playing that new sample and listening for the next one. It works very well for creating little mini-loops, almost like a long glitchy delay.

7. One other minor disappointment is that it often seems to add a little clicky/tappy noise at the end of a loop, particularly when you overdub. So, e.g., if you record an empty 4.8 second loop, and then overdub some sustained chords that cross over the loop end/beginning, you will hear this little thump sound when the loop repeats. It's not horrible, but would obviously better if it weren't there.

8. I did not quite appreciate from the manual how much the speed, time, and pitch knobs interact. I completely missed the fact that the pitch control affects speed - I thought it was a totally independent pitch adjustment. So the Pitch and Speed knobs kind of do the same thing, just in different ranges. Speed goes from -1 (reverse) down to 0 (stop) then to +1 (forward), and it affects the pitch as it slows it down or speeds it up (just like the Revolver or CT5 when unquantized). Pitch is quantized and goes from -2 (down two octaves, 1/4 speed) to unity, to +2 (up two octaves, 4x speed). So between the speed, time, and pitch knobs you can often get the same sound a few different ways. Or, you can stack them to get some CRAZY fast/slow loops - though at extremes the pitch will generally either be very low or very high. If you record the original sample accordingly high/low in pitch you can compensate for that somewhat.

I definitely need to put some more time in with it, and it's possible I misunderstood something that I described above. But overall it's a pretty impressive pedal.

Great review! Kudos. The Tensor has in fact replaced the reVolver DX on my main board.

Can't wait to be able to play it again and make a better, more encapsulating video.

[worra]

Great write-up, now we need more audio clips please!

[codetocontra]

The artifacts it produces are quite annoying. Manual blames the time stretch if set too far. That's pretty dumb. It's not musical and makes the time stretch not usable. I have more to explore but it did not make a good first impression.

And the seam when it loops is sometimes more noticeable than others. But that sucks too.

[Seance]

more audio clips please!

[zoooombiex]

Fancy-schmantsy videos aren't my thing, but FWIW I just threw this together to try to illustrate the comments I made earlier. It should be self-explanatory, but lemme know if something isn't clear.

In making this, I noticed that the random knob can introduce a lot of artifacts and static-y noise. Sometimes it sounds good in context, but not usually for me. And the time compression gets pretty static-y at the high settings.

Also, one suggestion I have would be for the speed control - I like that it's unquantized, but it would be nice to have the sweep give a little extra area around the octave marks so you can dial that in quickly.

[jrfox92]

So it's like a CT5 but with time stretch and an additional octave control?

[PeteeBee]

Woah. I think that video sounds awesome. Seems weird how the time knob gets so crackly when cranked. I wasn't expecting that. Otherwise sounds really great.

[codetocontra]

Nice video. Demonstrates how similar this is to mode 2 on the CT5, with some Revolver overlap in there too.

The ugly noise I referred to earlier can be heard at 1:30, 9:30, 10:45. So far I found that the extreme settings on the Time knob, reverse playback, and using the Random knob will cause it.

The seam in the loop can be heard at 6:37 when the LED blinks. I have no idea if this is fixable with new firmware. I also hate that I just wrote that sentence.

[thesneakup]

That's the best demo video of the Tensor yet made, by far. Clear view of the pedal, clear audio, and evident ability of the player to control the device. Thank you!

There were parts of that video that were really impressive – pretty, musical moments in which the Tensor seemed to do exactly what it should do (with due credit to the demonstrator, again) – but there were other parts that gave me pause. I can accept that a pedal effect might glitch out during time stretching and compression, but the ticks and thwps that usually occurred when loops were opened and closed aren't acceptable to me. I've wondered for a while why Red Panda hasn't commissioned or made by themselves a close-focus demo like this of the Tensor, especially since time and opportunity have been available, and I think it's reasonable to suspect that it's because these kinds of shortcomings necessarily would be exposed. A lot of pedals have been sold and have gotten into users' hands before this kind of view has been seen.

While it's now clear that some great sounds can be made with the Tensor, it's my personal thought that buying one would be a tacit endorsement of widely releasing a device with inherent faults in its functionality. I don't know the cause of such sonic artifacts – a processor stretched beyond its capability? Buggy programming considered "good enough" to sell? Etc.? – but at this point, I'll have to wait to see if an update will clean it up. I feel good about the Tensor for the most part, but after this first date, I'm not gonna rush to call it back.

[fuzzisokiguess]

I've wondered for a while why Red Panda hasn't commissioned or made by themselves a close-focus demo like this of the Tensor, especially since time and opportunity have been available...

^this^2

There are literally demos literally falling out of people's arses these days. Not figuratively. Redflagvillle.

[molokaio]

That's the best demo video of the Tensor yet made, by far. Clear view of the pedal, clear audio, and evident ability of the player to control the device. Thank you

^this. such an amazing demo, a clear view of the pedal and really musical uses.
congrats man, One of the best red panda demo in General.

[damnableman]

xo